A
few more words and she would be finished. A few more minutes of
looking at pages of text, boring documents about account ledgers,
business information, it was her typical day at the office. With a
sigh of relief she stood and shrugged her shoulders hoping to relieve
the dull ache in between her neck and back. Slowly and carefully
Faith laid her glasses down on the hard oak surface of her desk.

She
barely noticed the phone ringing as the pain continued to radiate
through her body. Faith
took another moment to relax before grabbing the phone. Her
assistant's voice was strained and angry on the other end of the
line. "What's wrong Liz," she asked cautiously.

Faith
didn't freak at the moment, because her assistant had issues with
causing drama over the simple things instead of taking a deep breath
and relaxing first.

Elizabeth,
or Liz for short, let out a quick breath and flipped one blonde curl
over her shoulder. She spoke quickly the anger apparent in her voice
"Well this guy is here and I told him you were busy, but he won't
listen he says it's important. He is so persistent on seeing you
and I told him you weren't seeing clients today, but he won't
listen. I know how you don't like to be bothered at this time of
day, but I think we may have to call security on this one."

"Who
is it," Faith asked cautiously.

"Well
he says his name is Matthew Hilliard."

Her
assistant kept rambling on, but all Faith could do was stand there
and stare at the wall across the room. There was then a long silence
on the line when finally it registered in her brain, who was a mere
few feet away. The phone then became as if it was on fire, and
without a thought it fell from her hand and crashed onto the desk
with a thud. Faith shuttered from the sound and the thought of
Matthew a few feet away. Her stomach had begun to turn into one big
knot.

"Sorry
Liz," Faith whispered. "It's my ex-husband; I haven't seen
him in three years." Faith continued to stare straight ahead
finding a spot on the wall of cream colored wallpaper to focus on
instead of the situation at hand.

"What's
he doing now," Faith asked softly.

"He
is sitting here very impatiently. I think at any moment he might bust
through your office door like a mad man. Please hurry or I am going
to call security. He can't be causing problems you know; we have
small children just in the next room."

"Okay,"
Faith began. "Keep him away from that daycare center. Please I am
begging you, he can't find out yet, please! I will talk to him, but
if he starts to get crazy I will security."

After
hanging up the phone Faith took a moment to check her physical
appearance in the mirror just before she heard the slight tapping on
her door. "Come in," she whispered softly trying to catch any
last minute braveness she might be able to find.

It
was useless, the minute her office door opened and he strolled in
black suit, polished shoes, tall dark tanned skin, jaw line set
steady, cleanly shaved; she knew she had just set herself up for
another heartache.

She
took a moment to lay the picture of Emily down before making her way
forward. He didn't know about their unexpected miracle and she sure
wasn't about to tell him anything no matter what. Her daughter was
the most precious thing in her life and no matter what she would
protect her.

She
forced a smile to form on her face; there was no need to start things
off on a bad foot. "Have a seat," she whispered.

The
anger in his eyes was apparent, but she couldn't seem to figure out
what she had done wrong, except of course hide their daughter from
him, but she was positively sure he knew nothing about that.

"Yeah
I want to see my daughter," he said calmer than she would have
imagined considering the anger in his eyes. He showed a lot of
restraint, which to her was so unlike Matthew.

Faith
looked away; the air in her lungs had completely disappeared. She
feared that this would one day happen. No matter how hard she had
tried to keep her own secrets, they had been exposed, and to the
worst possible person.

"What
do you mean you want to see your daughter," she finally spoke after
several seconds of pausing to compose her mind and body once again.

"Oh
quit playing games! That must have been her in the picture you just
laid down."

Faith
in that moment knew she was no longer able to keep the secret about
their daughter, so with one quick breath she let everything out.
"Alright, I can't lie to you. She is your daughter, her name is
Emily, but just because you donated, some sperm a few years ago
doesn't make you her father. You have never even…"

He
cut her words off abruptly. "Yeah well if someone would have told
me about her I guess I could have been the father she needs. I sure
don't remember you complaining about anything when we were sleeping
together!" His anger still held in check for the most she watched
him carefully.

Matthew
stood tall and confident, arms crossed tightly against his chest. He
was the perfect picture of manliness, strong, tall, and handsome.
Faith remembered him quiet differently in her memories however. She
remembered a soft and gentle man who took every part of his heart and
soul and gave it to her for eternity.

'What
a jerk,' she said to herself jumping back into reality suddenly,
leaving the past exactly where it belonged, in the past.

Faith
let out her frustration quickly, "I had my reasons for what I did,
none of which I need to explain to you or anyone else."

"Well," he said
letting out a breath of pent up air. "I will be talking to my
lawyer today. You have no right to hide my daughter from me. Why
would you do this to me? I didn't deserve this. Our daughter
deserves to have a father."

The words he said hit
Faith deep in the core of her soul. She would deny it now, but she
knew deep down he was right. There was no denying the fact that Emily
needed a father, a stable dad who could teach her and love her.

'I am doing the best
I can,' Faith thought to herself, but it wasn't enough. Emily
needed that father figure, but Matthew wasn't the right person. He
was too carefree, too unstable, too much of a loner to care for a
child.

"Three years," he
continued on. "You kept our child from me for three years! It stops
today. I want partial custody and I will have the best damn lawyers
on my side. Fight me on this Faith and I will go to the ends of the
Earth and I will win this case. Hopefully you will see my point of
view before I have to go that far."

Faith looked for a few
seconds into those gorgeous, raging eyes, and thought maybe for a
moment she saw the old Matthew, but then it was gone. It was a faded
memory of the past withering away with the wind. This was how he was
now, strong, tough, and angry. She had no one to blame but herself.

"How dare you! You
come in here and just expect me to give up my daughter, because you
have some fancy lawyer." Faith tried to fight for control of her
body, but she was fighting as loosing battle. "Your daughter,"
Faith shouted getting angry. "Your daughter doesn't deserve to be
drug through the mud like this. She is a child. You are mad at me and
you're going to take this out on her. What a father you will be."
Faith rolled her eyes and fell into her office chair crossing her
arms over her chest.

"I will see you in
court," Matthew shouted slamming the door closed behind him as he
walked out.

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